Soul

We still do. Id rather give Lilly another year then take that ridiculous contract. If you think Lilly is that much worse than Zito right now... Zito will probably pitch his games though. I'm not sure I can say that about Lilly with the shoulder problems he has had. Still though, everyone is right. It's a staggering amount of money for this guy, almost incomprehensibly high. Zito's solid, but this would appear to be the kind of money a multiple Cy Young award winner would get. Zito won one, but it was in 2002 and he's never approached that level of performance since. His ERA+ that season was 169. The last 3 seasons it has been under 120.

I don't see how baseball's non-testing of steroids makes any difference. At all. You took 'em. You knew they were illegal. You got caught. End of story. Baseball's policies---or lack thereof---doesn't even enter in to the equation. Law trumps corporate policy every time.

i just read that on yahoo, some of you thought we had it bad with Lillys contract The number of years is bad on the Zito contract, the pay is not. With Lilly the number of years isn't so bad but the pay is. Zito will probably perform better given the dimensions of Pac Bell. I really worry about Lilly in the NL Central ballparks. So you think that Zito is worth 18 million a year? That's not what I think. I really don't have anything to say about "worth". Worth is relative to the team's payroll and the player's contribution. I don't really know how to determine worth. That said, I'm not all that upset about the Lilly signing, but I worry about The Cubs signing fly ball pitchers. The only hope I have is that maybe Lilly just never had to learn to pitch more for the ground ball because he was playing in that cavernous dome. I know. Pretty thin.

Barett was roundly lambasted though. It was a risk by Hendry. One that paid off. Who knows? Maybe Izzy will improve a little. I think with Barrett there was a season with the Expos where he was healthy and did pretty good. So there was a flash or two there, something to hang on to and hope he could get back to. Maybe there is with Izzy too, I don't know. I think his defense is a marked improvement over Cedeno at any rate.

No, I definitely don't.

Yeah, and notice who Riley ordered to have injured. Not Hinrich, but Deng. Deng's a threat. That's why Riley tried to take him out. I don't think this was a Riley order to take out Deng in particular. Deng was going up, Posey saw an opportunity. I do. This is a pattern with Riley. He gave Posey the go-ahead at first opportunity. Obviously I can't prove it. But we're not in a court of law. I believe Riley orders hits on players. I'm not saying Riley wasn't behind it, I'm saying "The List" of guys was not just Deng. Impossible to say. I just found it very telling that Hinrich was not retaliated against, yet was singled out by Riley after the game. Hmmm.... So then he orders a retaliation on the one Bulls player who is starting to make headlines as a possible all-star, the one player who offers an inside scoring threat and can score from the most places on the court, huh? Interesting. Instead of straight up retaliation on Hinrich, why not kill two birds with one stone and go after the one player who you fear the most? Can't prove any of this, of course. Just seems possible, and knowing Riley over the years I wouldn't put it past him.

Wow that's even more than I guessed. I had Zito at 6/96.

Careers could be damaged because guys took steroids. Don't blame the release of the truth for their careers being damaged. That being said, this isn't a good thing for anybody. It only adds to the distrust between MLB and the MLBPA. I wouldn't feel the least bit sorry for some bum who used roids and is exposed. But dishonoring the confidentiality of this test only makes further testing more difficult. I know that if you sleep in hay you shouldn't be surprised to wake up itchy, but what if some guy tested positive because he smoked a hooter with his college buddies a week before the survey? As someone said earlier, the positive tests might show more than steroids. If they do, it seems this zeal to get Bonds is going to needlessly embarass other players. I guess I shouldn't feel sorry for them, but I do. Yes, that would really suck. They can all blame Bonds, for refusing to come clean.

I'd love to delude myself into thinking the Cubs have the best pitching in the NL Central, but as of Christmas eve, in my book, that honor clearly belongs to the Milwaukee Brewers. Take a hard look at Capuano's #'s last year..combine those with a full year of Sheets, throw in Suppan, Bush and Vargas and the Cubs have a VERY formidable foe in their division that's geographically North of them. This is also a staff that has 2 pitchers in the pen who have made AS teams as closers (Turnbow and Cordero) along with some good looking youngsters and holdovers....our pen may have a slight edge, but it's real close. Well, maybe you're right. Who knows, maybe if Prior comes back strong and Hill breaks out we'll be OK. I don't know----the Brewers always seem to pull a fade to finish the season, and I wouldn't count on Sheets for an entire year. His rehab didn't exactly go as smoothly as the Crew was hoping. We'll see. Everyone's undefeated right now :wink: All it will take is a little luck :wink: LOL. How about the Cubs start making their own luck. Then I'll be happy.

I don't get how they can rank our Minor Leagues so high. There's not a single position player in our system of value, and there hasn't been since Grace came through the system. Our minor leagues are dismal.

The Cubs biggest obstacle is themselves and their own incompentance. Indeed. As it ever has been from the beginning of time. Or at least 1908.

He didn't play another minute. Are you suggesting some member of the Bulls should have jumped on him right then during the break in the action and gotten suspended for 15+ games? I don't see any value in that. Definitely not. No reason to get our guys suspended. That would have made Riley even more happy. I'm glad our players didn't give in to that kind of thuggish behavior.

The reason is simple. This defense could play much more physical football----and indeed WANTS to play much more physical football. So they get many more phantom roughing penalties, more of those stupid horsecollars (Bears have 2 of those I believe, and while I'm sure others have gotten them too I haven't seen it), more offsides (including several by Tommie Harris which clearly were not offsides). The Bears defense wants to play like the defenses of yore. But the league's new rules and enforcement won't allow it.

To be fair, the lack of holding calls on our defensive ends have frustrated me a bit this season. (Almost as bad as the non-calls that Berrian should have got in the Patriots game, all the controversy about Grossman and the Bears might have been completely forgotten if the reffs threw 2 flags after Berrian was practically molested, but thats for a different post) Still, our pass rush needs to be there or our cover 2 will just be picked apart in the playoffs. Since the Patriots game quarterbacks have had all day to find an open receiver. I'm not opposed to blitzing either...but seeing Lance Briggs launch himself at a guard isn't going to get the job done either. I'm frustrated with the non-holding calls too. But I've got to be honest: from what I'm seeing, it's down all over the league. My best guess is the league is giving the offense more license to hold in order to protect QBs better. It makes sense; the NFL is bound and determined to create a baby's cradle for every QB so they can throw bombs with impunity. The NFL is trying like heck to keep every game above the 50 point barrier. Any time teams score over 20 apiece, the casual fans stay tuned in longer. It's ruining the game for true fans like me, but the league knows I'm addicted so they don't care what I think.

Yeah, and notice who Riley ordered to have injured. Not Hinrich, but Deng. Deng's a threat. That's why Riley tried to take him out. I don't think this was a Riley order to take out Deng in particular. Deng was going up, Posey saw an opportunity. I do. This is a pattern with Riley. He gave Posey the go-ahead at first opportunity. Obviously I can't prove it. But we're not in a court of law. I believe Riley orders hits on players.

I still don't think the Giants are going anywhere.

Cedeno's OBP was .005 higher than Neifi's. That is pretty darned insignificant. Ronny was just as bad as Neifi. Seriously. It cracks me up when people try to say that Cedeno was better than Neifi last year. I'd take .254/.266/.343/.610 over .245/.271/.339/.610 every day of the week. Some people seem to forget that a hit is better than a walk. What do you consider a better AB.....a 10 pitch walk with no one on base or a first pitch single with no one on base? I'll take the hitter who can do either on a much more consistent basis than Ronny or Neifi :wink:

Yeah, and notice who Riley ordered to have injured. Not Hinrich, but Deng. Deng's a threat. That's why Riley tried to take him out.

I think more harm is being done by not knowing. The constant secrecy, the rumors----this is more harmful IMO. Also, not knowing just keeps the whole thing going interminably. Maybe a mass exposure of names would help people say "OK, this is what it really was." Then move on.

Isn't that the same wrist he broke 2 years ago? That's the first thing I thought of when he hit the floor. Here's hoping he's okay. And Riley can go scratch. His teams have always been cheap shot specialsts. Yes it is the same wrist. KC Johnson's article this morning says that Deng's wrist is 'sprained', which is a damn relief. Let's just hope it doesn't become a lingering issue for Luol Coming in to work though, the radio report was that Deng still needed X-rays, and was concerned. I really hope it's just a sprain. Posey should be banned from the league. He's openly trying to hurt players. He took Hinrich out of the playoffs----heck, the Heat might not even have beaten us without Posey's thuggish BS. Now he's at it again? Come on, something's got to be done.

Alex Brown is a great player. In the Meadowlands he is. The fact is the whole "sacks don't matter" attitdue died when Jauron and Blache left, and thankfully so. Sacks do matter. Jon Kitna proved that Sunday. The Bears had a few opportunties to sack him on the last play, and luckilly Big Bust Mike Williams dropped that ball. Not only is Brown not getting to the QB, he is getting owned at the LOS. Alex Brown is an extremely streaky player and needs to step it up or else. Maybe someone ought to tell Ogun that too, then.

Nope, it was the Seahawks who kicked their final FG (and score) of the game at the end of the 1st half. Bears were up 20-3 before then. a 2 TD lead with the way our defense was in the early season is insurmountable, IMHO.

Ok. What about a 20-6 halftime score and an opening drive TD by the Bears to start the 3rd quarter says that the Seahawks were in that game? I'm not disputing that the Bears aren't likely to beat Seattle as bad as 37-6 if they played again, but Seattle was never in that game, and has to be a longshot, at best at this point, to beat the Bears. Agreed. Hubes, are you sure you are remembering the same game? Seriously---that one was a blowout pretty early. Seattle was never in it. Rex seemed to just keep slashing them with long passes-----all day long. I know they had a couple drives, but the only one that was meaningful was the first drive of the game. I do remember a long pass opportunity that was just badly overthrown by Hasselbeck. But that would have only brought Seattle to within a couple scores----and it was desperation under heavy pressure anyhow (Bears were putting great pressure on back then). There's just no way in hell Seattle comes to Chicago in the blistering cold and actually *beats* the Bears. Alexander or not. It's not their MO. They play great at home. But get them out of their element and that team often begins to resemble a top 10 draft team, not the NFC champs. This is the same team that got embarrassed by Arizona and SF and are on a 3 game bender at the end of the year. I'd have a tough time feeling comfortable with them beating their wild card opponent in the first round @ home, much less coming all the way to Chicago and beating the Bears.

Free Big Macs soon. :lol: Oh yeah, there's always that 8-)

This is ridiculous. Doesn't our home court buy anything?